Rhonda Thurman talks to supporters in Soddy-Daisy about her write-in campaign for the District 1 Hamilton County Commission seat.
Thurman waits on election results Thursday at Wimpies Country Restaurant in Soddy-Daisy.This has been her routine for nearly a decade. While her husband sleeps, she prepares to represent the good people, the taxpayers, of District 1 on the Hamilton County school board.
Sometimes at 400 pages, the month’s school board agenda packet is stuffed with consultant contracts, field trip forms, budget amendments and bids. Unlike some other board members, she combs through nearly every page.
These nights in her kitchen, wielding a highlighter, a legal pad and sticky tabs, have helped build her reputation as a stickler, an unyielding nit-picker. These nights have helped her become, arguably, one of the most notorious politicians in Hamilton County’s history. But she represents something larger, a political shift toward an America that increasingly embraces the politics of no.
Later at the board meeting, in front of teachers, parents and reporters, she’ll pepper administrators with questions.
Why does this consultant cost $2,500 a day?